In the history of the first peopling of Dover, of the arrival of Julius Cæsar, and of the state of society at that period in Kent, the author maintains the dignity of an impartial historian; never degenerating into either panegyric or censure, but stating facts with much perspicuity and impressiveness. The history of the town of Dover, its parishes and public establishments, contains much civil and ecclesiastical intelligence, which will be read with interest by almost all classes of persons. The historical proceedings in forming a harbour," which are illustrated by several large plates, must be particularly valuable to engineers, and all those who take an interest in the intended formation of a harbour at Shorebam, of a break-water at Plymouth, and similar works. Mr. Lyon's view of the origin of jurisdiction, Saxon feuds, and civil laws, prior to the Norman invasion, is evidently the result of much reading and reflection. His account of the hundred court, the court of frank pledge, &c. will naturally excite comparisons between them and our present courts of conscience and requests, in which the pecuniary differences of the lower classes are decided often by the most ignorant tradesmen; and, not unfrequently, with the most barefaced contempt of every thing like common justice and moral honesty. While such nurseries of injustice exist, we ought not to expect the predominance of honesty among the poorer tradespeople. If regularly educated and responsible persons were placed at the head of these courts as judges, a reform in the morals of the present litigants might be expected, as a necessary consequence. The history of the "court of Lodemanage," or corporation of pilots, possesses much novelty. This term is defined as having an import very different from that which Tyrwhitt has assigned it. The critic describes it from the Saxon ladman (ladman), pilot or guide, and the French termination age; and, observes that it would have been better English to say lodemanship. Todd, in his edition of Johnson's Dictionary, not only adopts this remark, but also defines loadmenage "the skill or art of navigation," in opposition, to the words of the act of Parliament which he cites. Our historian removes all these doubts and contradictions, with the perspicuity and simplicity which distinguishes an author who perfectly comprehends the subject on which he writes. "The court of Lodemanage, he observes, may be considered as a branch of the Admiralty Court for the Cinque Ports; and the admiral anciently presided at it, and it was held under

his authority, after it was separated from the parent-stock. The jurisdiction of the court was at first confined to the regulating of the hire for piloting of ships; and the wages of the pilots were named the lodemanage, from their managing und guiding the vessel. The members of this society were called lodesmen, lootsmen, and leadmen, from the Belgic word loot, which signifies lead; and they were also called pail lootes, or men who measured the depth of the water over shoals in the narrow seas, by heaving the lead. They were distinguished by their name, from those who navigated in the open ocean; and they acquired their knowledge of bays, and the entrance into harbours, by sounding and remarking how much water there would be, at any given time, both during the flowing and the ebbing of the tide. They were also capable of conducting ships clear of sand banks, between Dover and the River Thames and Medway; and to the ports of Flanders, Holland, and the East country." The history of the corporation of pilots, although apparently a dry and very uninteresting subject, exhibits such portraits as may be studied with great advantage by all who would acquire a practical knowledge of the mechanism of civil society. Here there was no prince to flatter, no minister to corrupt, no loud-tongued popularity to cherish imbecile vanity; yet corruption and depravity have seldom attained such a point of audacity in this country. It will scarcely be believed that any two or three private individuals would have dared to appropriate the funds of the whole body of pilots, and to refuse them the permission to inspect the accounts, and learn how their own hard-earned money was applied, and this too for a series of years. It was not till 1799 that the poor pilots could obtain anything like justice; and then it was rather a security for the future, than indemnity for the past. From 1782 to 1799, the wardens, treasurer, and clerk managed the property of the society in their own way, which they refused to explain. A court of inquiry was at length instituted to compel them; but some of the parties being dead, many of the papers destroyed, and other artifices practised to baffle inquiry; the court could ascertain with certainty but a comparatively small sum, which, however, it ordered to be refunded. Throughout the whole narrative of those disgraceful proceedings, the author strictly adheres to facts and the letter of the laws appealed to. We should not have been displeased, had he added his own note of reprobation: perhaps, indeed, he concluded that the simple

facts were sufficient to awaken honest indignation in every ingenuous mind, and he is certainly not very wrong. But the question has another feature; we mean its relation to foreign countries, and our national character. We say nothing of the injuries which the London merchants sustained, as the almost necessary consequence of this example of infamous depravity exhibited to the Dover and Deal pilots: they were perfectly able to procure redress: but we must notice the complaints of the foreign captains accustomed to navigate on those shores. The very heavy tonnage, and other dues charged on foreign vessels, have long been the subject of complaint; and among these, the charges of the Dover pilots are particularly mentioned. The Portuguese traders have repeatedly urged complaints of this nature; but no redress, we believe, has yet been obtained. The question has also been discussed with considerable ability, and some warmth; in the " Correio Braziliense," in "O Investigador Portuguez em Inglaterra," in "O Portuguez," and other periodical publications which are printed in London in the Portuguese language. It is not a subject of state, but of mere municipal regulation, and therefore might be determined with greater precision. One argument used, deserves immediate consideration; that is, the difficulty, the impossibility of a foreign captain's ascertaining the precise sum which he ought to pay for pilotage from Dover to London. A recent Act of Parliament has ordered the publication of all such charges, and they are now exhibited in the custom-houses; but there is on this head still something anting, to render matters consistent with our national cha cter for frankness, equity, and integrity; we might add, with the true interests of commerce and the country.

The second volume contains a complete history of the castle and fortifications of Dover, from the days of the Romans to the present time, illustrated by plans and views of the Roman, the Saxon, and the Norman buildings. To the lovers of antiquities, and those who delight in tracing the progress of the arts and local associations, the luminous and comprehensive details here given will be an acceptable present. Those who are unacquainted with our Saxon and Latin chroniclers, may safely repose more confidence in Mr. Lyon's impartial statement of our ancient history, and his laudable adherence to facts, than in any of our modern theoretical histories, where every thing is made to bear on

certain preconceived notions. The anuals of the castle, and a list of its constables, enables the author to give some interesting biographical sketches of the prime ministers of this country, during several centuries: the list commences with Odo, Bishop of Baieux, and terminates with the pre sent Earl of Liverpool, who is the one bundred and thirtyeighth constable and lord warden of the Cinque Ports since the Norman invasion. But the document of most value in these volumes is a complete and correct copy, taken from the only MS. now extant, of the "Customals" or codes of civil and criminal laws in "Dover, Sandwich, Romney, Rye, and Winchelsea." To these is added, an "explanation of some of the obsolete words and phrases used in the Customals," which may contribute to illustrate the history of the English language, as it appears that the MS. from which they were taken was written about 1357; that of Winchelsea was transcribed in 1557. Some of the phrases here explained are still used in the Scots law. The plate exhibiting "the remains of the ancient church, and the Roman Pharos in Dover Castle," may be considered as re presenting the very oldest structure now extant in Britain; and it is matter of regret, that no known art can preserve its existence to any remote period. Views of the monumental effigies of some of the constables who were buried in the church, are also preserved: indeed, every thing that is curious in nature or art has been most carefully recorded by our author. The only defect which we have observed, is the want of a view of St. Mary's, the author's own church, which is unquestionably of Saxon structure, and of which he has been the minister forty-four years.

ART. XI.-A Diary of a Journey into North Wales, in the Year 1774; by SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. Edited, with Illustrative Notes, by R. DUPPA, LL.B., Barrister-atLaw. London. 1816.

THE art and mystery of book-making, we think, was never more conspicuously developed, than in the production of the piece now before us. All that has been said about a slender streamlet of printing wandering through a meadow of margin, or about splendour of impression, and luxury of paper, or of any of the later inventions of the present age, to set off No. XIX.-VOL. III.—Aug. Rev.

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wretched matter, is forgotten, while we contemplate this concentration of them all. We could forgive all this-we could pardon the adornment of this monument to Johnson, if it bore the slightest impress of his mind; or, even if the book contained a single passage above the level of the remarks of our everyday tourists. But editors will not be prevailed upon, by all the counsels and examples which are daily held out to them, to refrain from exposing to vulgar eyes the errors and imperfections of genius. The majestic teacher of moral wisdom may have sometimes nodded: but it was not quite fair in Mr. Duppa to communicate those nods to the readers of his publication. Johnson himself has said, that "he dealt more in notions than in facts:" and Mr. Duppa has given us these notions in their rude and naked state-mere blocks of the workshop, which every quarry could have produced. These "notions" are presented to us in one hundred and fifty-five pages of the work; if those can be called pages, which consist sometimes of half a line, and never of more than sixteen lines: the average number of lines in a page is ten. Even with all this diffusion of Johnson's part of the book, it has been deemed necessary to add notes, marginal and supplemental; the matter of which is generally drawn from the very rare and exquisite sources of Boswell's Life of Johnson, and the Letters of Miss Seward. The editor has likewise kindly added an itinerary, and an index rerum et nominum, a preface, and a edication; all of which must, doubtless, be extremely interesting to the reader, as well as the contents of the Diary itself. We cannot, by mere description, convey to our readers any notion of the matter of the Diary, or of the manner in which it is composed: but we shall give a specimen of both, that the readers of our Review may be warned, if it be not already too late, to beware of the purchase of " A Diary of a Journey into North Wales, in the Year 1774; by Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Edited, with illustrative Notes, by R. Duppa, LL.B., Barrister-at-Law."

The opening pages go on in this fashion: to which, as matter of curiosity to those who have not had the felicity of reading German commentators, we add the notes, that they may have some notion of the relative proportions which Dr. JOHNSON and Mr. DUPPA bear to each other: